Why do search engines exist?

In order to understand search engine optimization (SEO), it helps to know a bit about search engines. Most people don’t realize that search engines are big business, raking in billions of dollars off the searches we do every day. With that much money at stake, it’s not difficult to understand why search engines want to deliver their users the most optimized search results.

Hover over the boxes below to learn how Google makes money by being the best search engine.

Step 1

Serve users the best organic search results

Google’s goal is to deliver the best content for your search.

Step 2

Earn a large user base of searchers

Because Google delivers the best search results, their website accounts for 79% of global search activity.

Step 3

Attract advertising revenue

Google has a lot of users so they serve them a lot of ads. 80% of Google’s revenue is derived from search advertising (not self-driving cars… yet).

Step 4

Invest in better search results

To stay ahead of their competition, Google updates their search algorithm 500 to 600 times each year.

Now go back to Step 1 and repeat!

TAKEAWAY #1

Google has a strong incentive to continue delivering searchers the best possible organic results. Therefore, in order for you to earn organic traffic from Google, you must strive to be the best possible search result.

Chapter 2

What does Google define as the “best” result?

OK, so now you know that all you’ve got to do to drive organic search traffic is be the best. Easy. Wait… what is Google looking for when it rates who is best? There are hundreds of factors that go into Google’s ranking algorithm, but all you need to know are these three categories.

USER EXPERIENCE

Create a site experience that engages your visitor.

Is your website mobile-friendly?

Does your website load quickly?

Does your website work on all browsers?

Are visitors sticking around?

Do you have clear calls-to-action for your visitors?

AUTHORITY

Build a trustworthy web presence.

Does your website represent the quality of your business?

Do reputable sites link to you?

Do you link out to resourceful sites in your industry?

RELEVANCE

Create content that your customers are looking for.

Can customers find answers to their frequently asked questions on your website?

Is your content unique? Is it readable?

Do you use media other than text in your content?

Are you using relevant keywords in your content?

TAKEAWAY #2

Focus on your customer, not search engines. If you give your customers the best possible experience on your website, Google is going to reward you for it.

Chapter 3

The building blocks of an SEO strategy

Now, you understand that being successful at SEO requires three main ingredients: (1) creating a great user experience, (2) building your site’s authority, and (3) publish content with high relevance to your audience. Let’s explore SEO Strategy 101 so that you can begin your journey towards driving massive amounts of organic traffic!

Develop a Strong Foundation

Experience Optimization

You may create the best content in the world, but you won’t drive much value from organic search if you can’t do the following:

Build a website that Google can access, crawl and index efficiently

Develop your website to be viewable on all devices and major browsers

Optimize your website to load content quickly for your visitors

As you can imagine, getting everything right that is listed above takes some technical know-how. If you’re not sure how you fare in these areas, we recommend that you start with an SEO audit. An assessment of your website’s technical infrastructure will help you understand how much work needs to be done.

Create a Trustworthy Brand

Authority Building

Once you have a strong foundation, you’ll want to signal to search engines that you are trustworthy. Google wants to direct its searchers to websites that have a strong online reputation. How do you position your website as an authority?

An effective way to earn backlinks naturally is to simply focus on producing great content for your customers. In the next section, we’ll cover the importance of having a strong content marketing strategy.

Publish Awesome Content

Content Relevance

With a strong site experience and growing authority, creating and optimizing content that matches your target audience’s search intent is what brings you organic search traffic. Here’s how your create relevant content:

Optimize service and/or product pages for when your customers are ready to convert

As you continue forward, creating great content is your most effective tactic for earning tons of organic search traffic. If you strive to publish content that’s better than your competition’s, you’re sure to outrank them in the long run.

TAKEAWAY #3

Your SEO strategy must be three-pronged to be successful. Optimize your site experience, build your authority and publish relevant content and you’ll reap the rewards.

Uproer was a huge help to my team at Get Healthy U. Their depth of SEO and online marketing knowledge has been extremely valuable. We’ve implemented many of his strategies and have seen measurable results. We will continue to work with Uproer to keep on top of SEO and best practices for online marketing.